New proposals to how clubs run their Academies are not all doom and gloom, says Reading’s director of football Nick Hammond.

Yesterday Football League club’s agreed to accept the Premier League’s proposals to abolish the tribunal over player transfers when clubs can’t agree on fees for home-grown youths.

Instead, clubs will get a set amount per season the player has been trained by the club with additional fees negotiated in add-ons.

The Premier League powerbrokers had threatened to withhold funding of around £5.4million for youth development if the Elite Player Performance Plan was not voted through.

Under the new scheme Football League clubs are now guaranteed a set figure each season over a four-year period from the top-flight.

And Hammond, who admitted that there was a certain degree of uncertainty around the new changes, did admit that it wasn’t as bad as it had been made out.

He said: “Our stance is that our Academy and youth system is the cornerstone of Reading Football Club and has been for quite some time now.

“The chairman and the board have supported our Academy in the last number of years.

“We have worked hard to nurture players and bring them through and into the first-team.

“Restructuring the system has been frowned upon by many, but we feel there are a lot of positives to come out of it.

“For the clubs that want to, you can have a lot more contact with the teenage boys through day release from schools to develop talent.

“We had a group of school kids in just yesterday and working with the players from a young age is vital for their football education.

“The tribunal system is a contentious issue and there is always a concern that the big Premier League clubs will poach players, but there are the positives that allow more contact time with the players.”

The best youth set-ups will now also be able to poach players from outside of a 90-mile radius from the grounds, a rule which had been in place.

But Hammond added: “We feel that if you have a successful Academy that has a track record of giving young players opportunities and developing them, then you are likely to keep on doing that and attract players.

“Eamonn Dolan and his team do a lot of hard work and one of the best examples of that recently has been Gylfi Sigurdsson.

“No one from outside of the club knew about him until he was brought into our first team.”

Of course Sigurdsson made a record £7million transfer to German Bundesliga club Hoffenheim last season.